An American Tail (1986)
 Seeking
to dethrone Disney as the king of animated features, a young mouse
named Fievel roared into cinemas in 1986's An American Tail.
Former Disney animator Don Bluth directed and Steven Spielberg
produced this heart-warming tale of an immigrant family of mice
sailing into New York near the turn of the century.
Fievel Mousekewitz and family, suffering under the oppressive
rule of Czarist cats, decide to flee to supposedly cat-free
America.
At sea, Fievel gets swept away during a storm, washing ashore
inside a glass bottle.
While the rest of the Mousekewitz clan adjusts to the new land
(which, they discover, is most certainly not cat-free) and mourns
their lost child, Fievel wanders the streets trying to find his
family. The plucky young mouse makes new friends, including a
cowardly cat named Tiger, and some not-so-friendly types who try
to drag him into the criminal world.
Meanwhile, the mice band together under wealthy mouse Gussie
Mausheimer to fight the control of the cats, ready to decide for
themselves what kind of land this America will be.
The film was Spielberg's first animated production, and he and
Bluth hoped to re-create the visual splendour of early Disney
cartoons like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Pinocchio.
Mixing traditional techniques with computer-assisted animation,
Bluth and his team created a rich, detailed cityscape, elaborate
production numbers, and slam-bang chase sequences.
Audiences loved the film, making it the most successful
animated film up to that time. A theatrical sequel followed in
1991, then an animated TV series, Fievel's American Tails,
one year later.
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